• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.113-121
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• 2011

Food allergies affect 7~8% of infants and young children, and their prevalence appears to have increased in recent years. Food allergy refers to an abnormal immunological reaction to a specific food. These reactions can be recurrent each time the food is ingested. Food allergy manifests itself with a wide spectrum of clinical characteristics including IgE-mediated diseases as immediate reactions, non-IgE-mediated disorders as delayed reactions, and mixed hypersensitivities. As a consequence, the clinical picture of a food allergy is pleomorphic. A well-designed oral food challenge is the most reliable diagnostic test for infants and young children whose clinical history and physical examination point towards a specific food allergy. Food specific IgE antibody tests (RAST, MAST, skin prick test, Uni-CAP, etc) are an alternative tool to determine oral food challenge for IgE-mediated disorders, but not for non-IgE-mediated allergies. Moreover, parents often impose their children on unnecessary diets without adequate medical supervision. These inappropriate dietary restrictions may cause nutritional deficiencies. This review aims to introduce clinical perspectives of food allergy in infants and young children and to orient clinicians towards different strains of diagnostic approaches, dietary management, and follow-up assessment of tolerance development.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.39-45
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• 2001

The pork meat has been reported as one of the food occurring allergic reactions predominantly to korean. To identify the potential food allergens in pork meat, sera were collected from 25 allergic patients to the pork meat and 10 allergic patients not to pork meat as well as 5 normal subjects after skin prick test and open food challenge test. Crude extracts were prepared by blending raw pork meat in phosphate buffered saline (pH 7.0) and the heat treatment on crude extracts was carried to characterize sensibility of the allergens to heat. ELISA was performed to determine specific IgE antibody levels of allergic patients to pork meat, and resulted in twofold higher mean value than that of tolerated patients. Extracted proteins from pork meat was separated with SDS-PAGE followed by immunoblotting using sera from pork sensitive patients and control subjects, respectively. The IgE binding response to pork meat by immunobots correlated with quantitative specific IgE value of each person. Immunoblots showed four prominent IgE-binding bands (66, 60, 50, 44 kDa) in crude extract, but two bands of those (60, 44 kDa) were heat-labile. These results suggest that most prominent allergens from pork meat are four components(66, 60, 50, 44 kDa) in korean and the heat treatment on allergen is additional parameter to characterize allergen.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.36-41
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• 2008

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the clinical significance of food-specific IgE antibody tests in detecting triggering antigens in food protein-induced proctocolitis (FPIPC). Methods: Between February 2006 and May 2007, data from 16 consecutive FPIPC patients that underwent MAST and Uni-CAP tests on initial visits, were reviewed. The endoscopic criterion used for establishing a diagnosis of FPIPC was an increase in the number of eosinophils in the lamina propria (${\geq}60$ per 10 high power fields). Offending foods were suspected clinically based on elimination and challenge testing to mother or patient diets with the following five highly allergenic foods: dairy products, eggs, nuts and soybean, fish and shellfish, and wheat and buckwheat. We compared the results of initial MAST or Uni-CAP tests with clinically suspected offending foods. Results: For the 16 FPIPC patients, MAST tests showed positive results in 2 patients (12.5%), and Uni-CAP tests showed positive results in 3 patients (18.8%). Through clinical elimination and challenge, the 33 offending foods were identified: 7 fish and shellfish (21.2%), 6 eggs (18.2%), 6 wheat and buckwheat (18.2%), 4 dairy products (12.1%), 3 soybean (9.1%), 3 pork (9.1%), 2 nuts (6.1%), 1 beef (3.0%), and 1 mushroom (3.0%). Clinically suspected offending foods and MAST and Uni-CAP test results were found to be correlated in 1 patient (6.7%) each. Conclusion: Food specific IgE antibody tests are inappropriate for predicting offending foods in FPIPC. Clinical food elimination and challenge testing provide useful means of detecting offending foods.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.39 no.12
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• pp.1776-1782
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• 2010

This research was done to verify the effect of Ecklonia cava water extracts (ECWE) on inhibition of allergic reactions using ovalbumin (OVA)-immunized food allergy mouse model. For in vitro test, $10\sim100{\mu}g$/mL of ECWE and OVA were added to splenocytes obtained from OVA-immunized mice. The significant reduction of IgE antibody level in culture supernatants of splenocytes was shown in ECWE adding group at all tested concentrations. In addition, ECWE decreased IL-4 and IFN-$\gamma$ levels in supernatants of splenocytes. To confirm the effect of ECWE in in vivo test, ECWE was injected to peritoneal cavity of OVA-immunized mice. Subsequently, IgE level was measured in serum and cultured supernatants of splenocytes. As a result, the injection of ECWE (5 and 10 mg/kg BW) significantly attenuated the secretion of IgE antibody in both serum and splenocytes. In conclusion, the present study indicates that ECWE could suppress in a food allergy mouse model through the inhibition of IgE secretion.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.104-112
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the general features of allergic patients in northwestern Chungcheongnamdo who visited Soonchunhyang University Cheonan Hospital. The subjects in this study were 1692 suspected allergic patients. After their allergic symptoms were checked and a MAST-CLA test was conducted, the following results were obtained: 1. The mean age of the subjects was 23.1 years old. The male patients represented 56.2% and the female patients accounted for 43.8%. 1387 (82.0%) patients of those investigated suffered from allergic disease. 2. Among the 1387 patients, 1022 (73.7%) patients showed an increased total IgE level. The positive rate of those who were in their 40s (87.0%) was the highest, but their age made no difference to their positive rate of total IgE. 3. Concerning the positive rate for allergen specific antibody by age, those who were in their teens (73.5%) topped the list and similar in all age group except in their 40s. By gender, the positive rate of the male and female were 56.3% and 43.9% respectively. Regarding the positive rates by allergic disease, those who suffered from allergic rhinitis (60.4%) were most vulnerable, followed by the patients with allergic dermatitis (47.4%), with bronchial asthma (47.2%) and with urticaria (39.4%). 4. As for seasonal positive rates, they were most susceptible in April (77.2%) and May (71.1%). We discovered a significant difference according to seasons; Spring (60.1%), Winter (45.4%) and Summer (39.2%). 5. In case of Korean inhalent panel, the most dominant allergen-specific antibodies were "Cockroach mix" (31.1%), followed by "D. pteronyssius" (23.8%) and "Dog" (14.3%). In the event of food panel, the most popular allergen-specific antibodies were "D. farinae" (25.0%), followed by "D. pteronyssinus" (19.8%) and "Hose dust" (12.0%). 6. The residential type made no difference to the positive rates of "House dust", "Cockroach mix" and "Dog" as major antigen but compared with others, positive rates for "Tick" were somewhat higher in apartment buildings.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.885-888
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• 2002

Prevalence of food allergic disease was examined by identifying the most common foods implicated in allergic reactions in Korea. Patients were subjected to test determining the amount of specific IgE antibody in serum against food allergens by CAP system. A total 9054 CAP analyses on egg white, egg yolk, cow milk, ${\alpha}-lactalbumin,\;{\beta}-lactoglobulin$, casein, wheat, rice, buckwheat, soybean, peach, crab, shrimp, pork, beef, chicken, tuna, salmon, mackerel, and food mix were undertaken. The results were considered to be positive when CAP value was same and/or greater than +2 (0.7 U/mL). Positive results of CAP analyses were 11.3% (1022/9054 cases), consisting of 336 on egg white, 266 on cow milk, 95 on egg yolk, 76 on soybean, 69 on ${\alpha}-lactalbumin$, 61 on casein, 58 on ${\beta}-lactoglobulin$, 39 on buckwheat, 12 on wheat, 3 on beef, 2 on crab, and 1 on rice, shrimp, pork, chicken or mackerel, and 0 on peach, tuna or food mix. Egg, cow milk, soybean, buckwheat, and wheat were identified as the most common allergic foods in Korea, showing an average of two different food sources for allergy per patient.